GROGS continued with its much acclaimed policy of diversity and inclusion with top female referee, Alex Pratt, journeying from Edinburgh to join us in our celebration of International Women’s Day! And celebration it was for a number of the 95 GROGs present who had not previously been aware of the extent that women’s rugby had become established in Scotland. As the old joke goes, thanks to Alex, “they ken noo”! In the story of her life, travels and involvement in rugby, Alex was as natural a speaker as we have had over the years. She made no apology for, or special explanation of, her involvement in a sport which most, if not all, of her audience would never have envisaged in their playing days. The language she used, the technicalities she explained and even the post match drinking culture she described were no different than would have been heard from her male counterparts and or from the majority of those present. Alex described how she came to Scotland in 2001 on one of those ‘world tour’ rites of passage that seem essential to young Kiwis and Aussies. She liked it so much she ended up staying and quickly took up rugby with Watsonians. She felt she took so much from club rugby that she wanted to put something back into the sport and, thus, took up refereeing. This has led, so far, to a stellar, and rather unique career, in that she has now officiated at all levels of club rugby as well as the Olympic Games, the World Cup, the Six Nations and the Melrose 7s. Her ambition for herself, she explained, is for rugby fans and officials to think that “she is not too bad”! After her talk, which centered mainly on her development as a referee, she took a number of questions from the floor. Interestingly, and as a compliment to her, these all focused on the technical side of modern day rugby. She handled these with the authority of someone who clearly knows their stuff. So far as GROGS is concerned, Alex more than achieved her ambition of being “not too bad”. The bottle of GROGS whisky she took home assured her of that!